A man has come forward, claiming that he is the person behind bitcoin's mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The problem is that he has been ordered to come clean and pay half of his cryptocurrency bounty. This was owed to a man who was believed to have been his former partner.
A US district court ruled on Wednesday that Aussie computer engineer Craig Wright owed the estate of David Kleiman half of the bitcoin earned between 2009 and 2013. MSN reported that Kleiman died in 2013, and Wright had previously suggested that the late Kleiman was his partner.
The ruling was presided by a judge from Florida, who said that Wright also owed Kleiman half of the intellectual property he owned at the time of the latter's death.
With bitcoin prices in a constant state of flux, the actual worth of Nakamoto's holdings is valued to be somewhere around $15.5 billion dollars. If Wrights is indeed Nakamoto, he would have no problem handing over $5 billion worth of cryptocurrency earnings as ordered by the court. Information on how much cryptocurrency Wright had on hand was not revealed.
No one knows who Nakamoto actually is, but many people have tried to claim the name. The National reported that these claims were quickly debunked even as they were started. Denials had been issued, and most of those who claimed that they were the cryptocurrency white paper author was not believed.
Claims that were made, such as the one by Craig Wright, were often labeled "Faketoshi." A blog post which was created by a supposed "Satoshi Nakamoto" was labeled as such.
The author said he was a former support analyst for the UK National Health Service. He presented linguistic justifications as well as numerological data, which were quickly shut down by followers who were also doubters.
There are a long list of Nakamoto suspects with some denying they are him. Finnish sociologist Vili Lehdonvirta was said to be him. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk had to deny that he was the bitcoin founder. Of course, Craig Wright was only the latest in a long line of "Faketoshis."
Leiman sued Wright for keeping the bitcoin mined by both of them. The suit claimed one million worth of bitcoins and that Wright deprived Kleiman's estate of the half of that amount which was rightfully his. Tragically, even as Kleiman's estate won the case, Wright insisted that he could not access his stash of bitcoin.
